A Mother’s Magic Touch

Sometimes the smallest memories leave the deepest impressions.

When I asked a client recently to describe what her mother was like, she began, “One of my favorite 'mom stories' took place before I started school."

There was a birthday party in the neighborhood for a child whose birthday fell just before Christmas. You know how those December birthdays often get overshadowed by holiday festivities? Well, this mom invited all the school-age neighborhood kids to celebrate, but my client was "too little" to attend.

"I was glooming around the house," she told me. The disappointment!

Here's where her mother's brilliance shines through:

"My mother invited me into her bedroom. She had set a card table with one of her best luncheon tablecloths and doll dishes complete with hot water, coffee, sugar, and milk. We called it 'hot water coffee.' There were little cookies and a candle."

Can you picture it? The care taken to create this impromptu special moment using what was on hand.

My client finished by saying, "I still get goosebumps thinking about it: my own special party two days before Christmas."

Decades later, this small moment of being truly seen by her mother continues to give her goosebumps.

This is exactly the kind of memory that deserves to be captured in a Family Love Letter. Not just the big milestones and life lessons, but those intimate, seemingly small interactions that reveal so much about who we are and where we come from.

What "goosebump memories" are you carrying? And more importantly - who needs to hear about them?